OFFICIALS at Newport Speedway have issued a ‘Save the Wasps’ plea to fans, who they say have one final chance on Saturday night to persuade them to run again in 2012.

Co-promoter Steve Mallett has long warned that crowd attendance figures at Queensway Meadows Stadium have been well under the club’s break-even figure.

Since that mark was hit in the home leg of the Knockout Cup final against league champions Glasgow earlier this month, successive visits by the same opponents and Somerset have dropped below it.

“I am asking every fan who has ever watched this club over the years to come and support us in our final meeting of the season against Edinburgh on Saturday night,” said Mallett.

“This is very much a ‘Save the Wasps’ plea from us all here at Newport and unless we have a good turnout, then what else are we to deduce from it.

“We won the Knockout Cup and have a chance to finish fourth in the Premier League and, at the risk of repeating myself, speedway in this city is the only winning sport with all the rugby and football clubs struggling.

“So if speedway fans want this club to run again next year, let them vote with their feet and turn up here on Saturday, when we have planned a big family occasion to celebrate both our end of season and Halloween.”

Mallett eluded to Saturday night’s home clash with Edinburgh Monarchs, a meeting which will form part of the ‘spooktacular’ brainchild of his son Nick. Included are live music, fireworks, children’s Halloween costume contest plus the club’s end-of-season presentation party.

As it is half-term week for children, all under-15s will be admitted free and the winner of the adult Halloween costume competition will receive a free ticket to the after-meeting party, where they will also get a free cocktail.

The live music will be on before the meeting, which will have an earlier start time of 6pm with the turnstiles open from 4.30pm.

“Being so close to Halloween, we thought that using this theme would create a fun atmosphere for our final meeting of 2011,” said Nick Mallett.

“I came up with the ‘spooktacular’ theme and everyone agreed it would be something everyone would want to be involved with and take part in.

“We hope this will capture the imagination of the people of Newport who will join us to celebrate a good season for the Newport Wasps.”

Before the visit of Edinburgh, the Wasps are scheduled to travel to face Berwick on Friday for their final away league clash of the 2011 campaign.

Meanwhile, the Wasps’ Australian ace Jason Doyle has officially declared that his recent corrective surgery on a long-standing shoulder complaint was a success.

Doyle went under the knife in Germany, but will now return to his homeland to convalesce.